Sunday, May 08, 2011

Natural Nurture

Flowering Almond and Magnolia
It’s fully appropriate that Mother’s Day should be in May, when life is regenerating, spring flowers and flowering shrubs are announcing what they are or what they will become, and warmth creeps in.

5787lkh


Yesterday I noticed the Hummingbirds have returned. A pair of them checked out a bright red tulip and fluttered away together. A vivid black and orange Oriole visited the feeder outside the window. I’ve seen them on rare occasions since we’ve been here. I also saw the most beautifully shaded little blue bird enjoying a treat of wild bird seed. Not a blue jay, I know. It’s smaller, about the size of a goldfinch, and vivid blue. Was that a bluebird? I had to look it up. Indeed it was a bluebird. A signal that happiness is on the way? I’m not sure I’ve seen one before. I sure hope he returns.

5784lkh
It’s funny how when I was young, I appreciated my grandma’s love of birds, and the cardinal especially, but I didn’t share her penchant for studying them. I also didn’t share her love of gardening, of growing things, of keeping healthy house plants. I remember Mom saying the same: she didn’t appreciate any of that until she was older. Now my daughter is so highly unimpressed by my tons of flower and bird photos and penchant for amateur gardening. I tell her that may change. She thinks it won’t.

5611lkh
Why is it that so many of us lean toward absorbing nature as we age? For us moms, is it filling a natural need to nurture something growing? My youngest is “adult” age now. My oldest is close to having her degree and moving on with her own life. More and more, I find myself attracted to nurturing plants and watching the birds. And to capturing them in photos as though I can hold them where they are forever that way.

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Perhaps the nature nurturing is a way of telling ourselves that all things ebb and flow, come and go, fade and are reborn.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers and all who revere their mothers.

5671lkh
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5 comments:

Dorothy said...

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos and thoughts. I think you've figured it out perfectly. Of course, I hadn't thought about it that way, until you (once again) pointed it out, but I've heard myself refer to my flowers as "my babies", and chuckled at myself when I said it.

Happy Mother's day to you! and to all the mother's children who made mothering a child such a joy. ♥

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos with us, and the narrative about the beauty you see in your own back yard. It looks like a gorgeous area. Celia

Mona Risk said...

Happy Mother's Day, Loraine. I love your pictures and I love looking at the beauty in naturs, but I was never able to garden. LOL
I'll always be a city girl.

Liana at livingwithpmdd.com said...

Happy Mother's Day, Loraine! I, too, am feeling the need to find something else to look after now that my son is getting older, but I'm not sure it's going to be a garden! All that work!

Stephanie Burkhart said...

Loraine,
What an absolutely wonderful visual tribute for Mother's Day. I love nature shots like this, it moves my soul. We have hummingbirds visit us too. Brent gets into making the hummingbird feeders.

Smiles
Steph